Paul McCartney says his wife, Nancy Shevell, thinks Queen Elizabeth II “fancied” him. The 84-year-old musician shared her theory during the Oct. 13 episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
He acknowledged that he had no way of knowing whether she was right. After Poehler suggested they imagine it was true, McCartney replied, “I like to think it’s true,” according to PEOPLE.
Poehler said she thought the late monarch would enjoy hearing Shevell’s assessment. McCartney remembered her sense of humor as one of the things he particularly liked about her.
McCartney and Shevell celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on Oct. 9. He marked the occasion with a photograph of them together on a boat and a caption celebrating their “Nanniversary.”
He Admired the Queen Before Meeting Her With the Beatles
The subject arose when Poehler asked which famous person had left him starstruck. McCartney immediately named Elizabeth, then joked that hers was an autograph he was not going to obtain. He recalled finding the young Queen attractive, describing her as “a babe.”
Elizabeth’s coronation took place on June 2, 1953, when she was 27 and McCartney was 10. In his 2022 tribute, he recalled watching in black and white as neighbors in Speke, Liverpool, acquired television sets for the occasion.
His enthusiasm also survives in a 300-word school essay rediscovered in library archives in 2009. Written for the coronation while he attended Joseph Williams junior school, it compared the anticipated celebrations with William the Conqueror’s coronation centuries earlier, according to a Press Association report published by the Times of Malta. The essay won him a book token presented by Liverpool’s lord mayor and remained in the archives for 56 years before coming to public attention.
Royal Honors Took Him Back to Buckingham Palace
McCartney’s written account dates his first meeting with Elizabeth to Oct. 26, 1965, when the Beatles received their MBEs. He, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were instructed to wait for her to speak before addressing her.
He and Linda McCartney met Elizabeth again at a 1982 conservation event at the Royal Albert Hall. In June 1996, she opened the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts at the site of his former school. His knighthood followed on March 11, 1997. His official archive preserves his comments afterward about the spring sunshine and how far he had come from a Liverpool terrace house.
On the podcast, McCartney said he felt fortunate that Elizabeth herself had presented his honors. As InStyle reported, Poehler joked that the Queen had made sure she was there. McCartney said that was the explanation Nancy would favor.
The Queen Had an Answer to His Jubilee Concert Suggestion
After performing at her Golden Jubilee celebration in 2002, McCartney suggested doing it again the following year. “Not in my garden it won’t!” Elizabeth replied, he recalled in his tribute.
Shevell joined him at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Celebration of the Arts on May 23, 2012. British Vogue’s coverage included photographs of the couple and the monarch greeting guests from music, film and fashion. McCartney returned to perform outside Buckingham Palace for the Diamond Jubilee the following month.
Shevell also accompanied him when he received the Companion of Honour on May 4, 2018. The award recognizes sustained contributions to fields including the arts and has a limit of 65 members, apart from honorary appointments. In a statement to the Press Association, reported by ITV, McCartney said he was thinking about how proud his parents would have been.
He later identified that investiture as his final meeting with Elizabeth. Shaking her hand, he joked, “We have got to stop meeting like this.” She giggled slightly and continued with the ceremony.